Repeater for rolling mill



March 13, 1962 R J, HERMES 3,024,678

REPEATER FOR ROLLING MILL March 13, 1962 R. J. HERMES 3,024,678

REPEATER FOR ROLLING MlLL Original Filed April 5, 1957 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 f ,l I Z /0 INVENTOR. Robev'lf J. He Tme March 13, 1962 R. J. HERMES 3,024,678

REPEATER FOR ROLLING MILL Original Filed April 3, 1957 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTR. Rober J HeTmes United States Patent 3,024,678 Patented Mar. I3, 1952 hice 3,624,678 REPEATER FR RGLLING MILL Robert J. Hermes, West Boylston, Mass., assigner to Morgan Construction Company, Worcester, Mass., a corporation ot Massachusetts Continuation of appiication Ser. No. 650,358, Apr. 3, 1957. This application Sept. 8, 1960, Ser. No. 58,872 4 Claims. (Cl. 80-52) This invention relates to a repeater for rolling mill and more particularly to a means for reversing the direction of movement of a metal rod or the like as it passes from one rolling mill stand to another. This application is a continuation of patent application Serial Number 650,350, tiled April 3, 1957, now abandoned.

lt is usual practice in the art of rolling metal to reverse the direction of movement of the rod because of the very long buildings that would be required if the mill was in a continuous line and because of the power drive arrangements that can be used when the mill stands are arranged in spaced, parallel lines. This reversal of movement is accomplished by use of a so-called repeater consisting fundamentally of a semi-circular groove in a horizontal plate. Considerable dii'liculty has been experienced in the past, however, with deformation of the rear end of a length of rod or bar when such a repeater is used. During most of the time that the rod is in the repeater, its front end is being pulled forward by the forward mill stand rolls, while its rearward end may be pulled backward by the drag of the rearward mill rolls. The rod is, therefore, subject to considerable tension and, when the back end emerges from the rearward rolling mill, this tension causes the tail of the rod to whip around. Another factor bringing about the same result is that of centrifugal force which increases as the square of the speed. Such unrestrained whipping is not only a source of danger to the mill personnel, but causes the rod to kink and to form a pigtail or a doubled end so that it may give trouble in passing through subsequent operations. These and other deficiencies in prior art devices have been obviated in a novel manner by the present invention.

It is, therefore, an outstanding object of the invention to provide a repeater which will inhibit whipping of the tail of a rod as it ieaves a rolling mill stand.

Another object of this invention is the provision of a simple apparatus for repeating rod, which apparatus is simple and inexpensive to manufacture, easy to operate, and will be capable of a long life of useful service.

A still further object of the instant invention is the provision of a rolling mill repeater which will prevent the formation of a pigtail or double at the rearward end of a rod or bar.

V To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the invention, then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the following description and the annexed drawings setting forth in detail certain illustrative embodiments of the invention, these being indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed.

In said annexed drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of apparatus including a repeater for a rolling mill making use of the principles of the invention,

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view of the repeater taken on the line II-II of FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view of the apparatus taken on the line IlI--III of FIGURE l,

FIGURE 4 is a sectional view of the apparatus taken on the line IV--IV of FIGURE 3,

FIGURE 5 is a plan view of a rst portion of the repeater,

FIGURE 6 is a plan view of a second portion of the repeater,

FIGURE 7 is an end view of the first portion as observed from the line VII- VII of FIGURE 5,

FIGURE 8 is a view showing the cross-sectional form of the first portion taken on the line VIII-VIII of FIGURE 5, and

FIGURE 9 is a sectional view of the first portion of the repeater taken on the line IX--IX of FIGURE 5.

Referring first to FIGURE 1, wherein are best shown the general features of the invention, the repeater, indicated generally by the reference numeral 10, is shown in use with a first rolling mill stand 11 and a second rolling mill stand 12. The mill stands and associated apparatus are constructed and arranged for the rolling of three strands of rod simultaneously. Two sets of guides 13 and 14 follow the stand 11 and, in turn, are followed by a twist guide apparatus 15. Preceding the stand 12 is a guide means 16 including funnel type guides 17 for introducing the forward ends of the rods into their respective grooves in the rolls of the stand 12. Between the twist guide apparatus 1S and the guide means 16 lies the repeater 10.

The repeater 1t) consists of a large table or plate 18 in which are formed three grooves 19, 21 and 22 in which the three strands of rod reside, particularly when the front ends are passing from the twist guide 15 to the guide means 16. The grooves are generally semi-circular and concentric with one another. At the sides of the table and generally tangential to the outermost groove 19 are steel fences 23 and 24. Inwardly of the innermost groove 22 is a barrier or fence 25 made up of a series of straight sections. Also inside the groove 22 are four stanchions 26, 27, 28 and 29; these stanchions are arranged so that the stanchion 26 is close to the exit end of the twist guide 15 and to the inner groove 22; the stanchion 29 is close to the entrance to the guide means 16 and to the groove 22. The stanchion 27 is located to one side of an imaginary line lying midway between the mill stands, and the stanchion 28 lies on the other side of this imaginary line; this distance between the stanchions 26 and 27 is the same as the distance between the stanchions 27 and 28, and the distance between the stanchions 2S and 29.

Mounted inwardly of the groove 22 and outwardly of the stanchions in an otherwise unoccupied portion of the plate 18 is a trap member 31 made up, for convenience of manufacture and handling, of two portions 32 and 33. As is evident in FIGURES 5, 7, 8 and 9 the portion 32 is formed with an upper surface 34 which slopes upwardly from an edge 35 which lies'adjacent the groove 22 to a high inner edge 36 which lies adjacent the stanchions 26 and 27. The portion 32 is provided with a vertical ilange 37 having a curved vertical inner surface 38. Above the vertical surface 38 is located a lip 39 directed toward the stanchions 26 and 27; this lip has a generally horizontal upper surface 41 which merges with the inclined upper surface 34 and has an inclined under surface 42 which slopes downwardly away from the stanchions. The trap portion 33 has a vertical inner surface 43 which is designed to operate as an extension of the surface 38 of the portion 32, but it is provided with only a small section of lip 44 to act as an extension of the lip 39. Suitable pegs, such as the peg 45, extend downwardly from the portions and sockets are formed in the plate 18 to receive them to locate the portions of the trap member 31.

As is evident in FIGURE 2, the trap portion 32 is located so that its inner lip 39 is closely adjacent the stanchion 27. A bridge 46 overlies the table 18 and the stanchion comprises a vertical journal 47 xed to and extending downwardly from the bridge and a rotating member 48 suitably mounted in bearings on the dependent portion of the journal. The rotating member has an upper conical surface 49 which slopes inwardly and downwardly and merges with a short right circular cylindrical surface 51 from the lower part of which extends a small flange 52. An aperture 53 in the plate 18 underlies the stanchion. As is evident in the drawing, the upper surface of the flange 52 is on the same level as the surface of the plate 18 on which the trap member is mounted. Also, the cylindrical surface 51 is generally vertically coextensive with the surface 38. The conical surface 49 and the undersurface of the lip 39 are included toward one another, although the surface 49 extends well above the highest portion of the trap member.

Some detail of the construction of the twist guide apparatus is shown in FIGURES 3 and 4, principally because of the effect that such apparatus has on rod, which effect contributes to the difficulties that lead to the present invention. Each pass or line of movement of a strand of rod is provided with a plurality of twistingy heads. Tn FIGURE 3, the head 54 corresponds to the pass line leading to the groove 19, the head 55 serves the groove 21, and the head 56 services the rod proceeding to the groove 22. The head 56 is provided, as are all the heads, with a housing 57 in which is held a guide 58 locked in place by a wedge 59. Through the guide 58 extends a passage 61 which, at the entrance end is formed with an oval crosssection having its major axis in a horizontal plane; at the exit end the passage is ovular, but with its major axis is in the vertical plane. Between the entrance and exit the passage is of oval cross-section and the major axis has various aspects progressing from horizontal to vertical.

The operation of the apparatus will now be readily understood in view of the above discussion. Rod leaves the passes of the mill stand 11 in the form of an oval with its major axis horizontal. It passes through the guides 13 and 14. In order that the rod may bend in passing through the repeater, its major axis must be vertical; the twist guide apparatus 15 is provided for this purpose. However, the twist guide apparatus presents considerable resistance to the passage of the rod. The rod leaving the twisting head 56 enters the groove 19 and is guided around the repeater circle until its front end enters the guide means 16 and passes through the guides 17 into the mill stand 12. Because of the reduction in cross-sectional area of the rod in mill stand 11 and the consequent greater length of the rod, the stand 12 runs faster than stand 11. This means that the size of the rod loop between the stands becomes smaller. Eventually, the shortening of the loop causes it to rise out of the groove 19 and proceed along the plate 18 until it comes to rest against the stanchions 26, 27, 28 and 29. As the rod moves sideways across the plate, it slides up the inclined surface 34 of the portion 32 of the trap member 31. It travels laterally over the horizontal upper surface 41 of the lip and strikes the conical surface e9 of rotating member 48 of the stanchion 27 at about the same level as the lip. Further tightening of the loop causes the rod to slide or cam down the surface 49 until it cornes to rest on the cylindrical surface 51. As long as the rod remains in both mill stands, it will be drawn tight against the stanchions. Even when the rearward end of the rod leaves the stand 11, the resistance presented by the twist guide apparatus 15 causes considerable tension to exist in the bight of the rod so that it continues to be drawn tightly against the stanchions. When the rearward end of the rod leaves the stand 11 and the twist guide apparatus 1S, the tension is relieved and the rod acts like a rubber band that has been released; the resultant action is aggravated by the centrifugal force acting on the rod because of its passage through a semi-circular path in the repeater. If the outward movement of the tail of the rod were uninhibited, it would snap around like a whip and frequently would form a pi gtail or would double it. Either formation would stick in a downstream guide and the rod would break, leaving the tail behind. The oncoming end of the next rod would strike this piece of rod jammed in the guide and a cobble would result. ln the present case, however, the free end swings outwardly away from the l stanchion and strikes the trap member so that its outward motion is stopped. rThe rod is at the level on the stanchion of the cylindrical surface 51 since it has cammed down the conical surface 49 during the progressive shortening of the loop. This means that when the rod is released it stays on the same general level and strikes the vertical surface 38 of the portion 32 of the trap member. lf for some reason the rod end swings outwardly at a slightly higher level, it will strike the inclined surface and slide downwardly onto the surface 38. The possibility is very unlikely of the rod swinging through the narrow gap between the conical surface 49 and the edge of the lip 39.

Other modes of applying the principles of the invention may be employed, change being made as regards the details described, provided the features stated in the following claim, or the equivalent of such, be employed.

The invention having been thus described, what is claimed as new and desired to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A repeater for a rolling mill, comprising a plate having a generally flat upper surface in which is formed a curved groove, a plurality of vertical stanchions located within the curve of the groove, each stanchion having a downwardly-converging surface of revolution which terminates at its lower end in a generally cylindrical surface, a trap member extending above the upper surface of the plate and lying between the stanchions and the groove, the said trap member having a vertical curved surface facing in opposition to each stanchion at the level of the said cylindrical surface of the stanchion and having a lip extending toward the stanchion at the top of the vertical curved surface, the lip being located above the level of the lower end of the said surface of revolution, the trap member having an upper surface which is inclined upwardly from the portion which lies closest to the groove to the portion closest to the stanchion.

2. A repeater for a rolling mill, comprising a plate having a generally at upper surface on which is formed a curved groove, at least one vertical stanchion located within the curve of the groove, the stanchion having a downwardly-converging surface of revolution which terminates at its lower end in a generally cylindrical surface, a trap member extending above the upper surface of the plate and lying between the stanchion and the groove, the said trap member having a vertical curved surface facing in opposition to the stanchion at the level of the said cylindrical surface of the stanchion and having a lip extending toward the stanchion at the top of the vertical curved surface, the lip being located above the level of the lower end of the said surface of revolution. the trap member having an upper surface which is inclined upwardly from the portion which lies closest to the stanchion.

3. A repeater for a rolling mill, comprising a plate having a generally at upper surface on which is formed a curved groove, a plurality of vertical stanchions located within the curve of the groove, each stanchion having a downwardly-converging surface of revolution. a trap member extending above the upper surface of the plate and lying between the stanchions and the groove, the said trap member having a vertical curved surface facing in opposition to each stanchion and having a lip extending toward the stanchion at the top of the vertical curved surface, the lip being located above the level of the lower end of the said surface of revolution, the trap member having an upper surface which is inclined upwardly from the portion which lies closest to the groove to the portion closest to the stanchion.

4. A repeater for an elongated product passing through a rolling mill, comprising a plate having a generally fiat upper surface on which is formed a curved groove through which the product is guided, a guide preceding the groove and presenting considerable resistance to the passage of the product therethrough, at least one vertical stanchion located within the curve of the groove, the stanchion having a downwardly-converging surface of revolution. a trap member lying between the stanchion and the groove, the

ber having an upper surface which extends smoothly from the portion which lies closest to the groove to the portion closest to the stanchion.

No references cited. 

